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That would make Mystique a rival type villain... at first I was against this notion, but I think given how often Mystique's been coerced into working as a secret agent for various agencies and Xavier and others... it kind of makes sense. It also grounds Carol into conflicts she can't muscle or powerblast her way out of. She has to trust a woman who's ultimately untrustworthy.

I like it, but it's still only one kind of recurring conflict. If Mystique is Carol's Joker, who is her Ra's Al Ghul? Who is her Catwoman? Who are her foes that keep her busy in space? Who are her foes that take her to other countries?

Mystique did pose as Carol and murder her boyfriend so I think they have the seeds of something more than just a rivalry if they want to go deeper into their foes relationship.

Carol is generally the establishment superhero so I guess her archvillain should be the mirror opposite and be a anti-establishment villain.

IIRC, it was Roger Stern who wrote the issue I'm thinking of. But yes, back when he had a cowl.

But I don't know why that matters. Carol at her worst is still stronger than Hawkeye at his best.

Okay, is just that during the Busiek run of The Thunderbolts Hawkeye was a force to be reckoned with. The dude got the drop on the entire team and almost wrecked them.

"The Marvel EIC Chair has a certain curse that goes along with it: it tends to drive people insane, and ultimately, out of the business altogether. It is the notorious last stop for many staffers, as once you've sat in The Big Chair, your pariah status is usually locked in." Christopher Priest

A big problem with organizations like Alpha Flight and SWORD before it is that we seldom get to see them actually fend off an alien attack. So, my idea for a nemesis: An alien conqueror who wants to conquer the Earth, and whose forces get fought off by Carol and Alpha Flight. But it's not just a straightforward epic battle. Treat it more like a long-term war, with occasional fights, lots of verbal back-and-forth, and occasionally needing to work together against a common threat. A mutual respect between Carol and the conqueror, maybe even give them some sexual attraction for fun, and let them debate their philosophies. (I'd also be inclined to have the conqueror be non-binary, and think the human gender binary is weird.)

Carol is supposed to be The Boss Of Space, Earth's first line of defence, the wall against which alien invaders break. So, why not actually go with that? If that's the direction for her, use it. Let her defend Earth. Give her a rival to play off of. She can fight plenty of other villains in the meantime, of course, but have a recurring threat that tries different strategies against her and requires she and her crew adapt to them.

Our we can just hand the station off to a UN force and free Captain Marvel. If things get too tough they can run to her for help, until it's eventually destroyed and we all forget about it. Things like the station exist to make humans look weak and heroes look cool. Which is why those stations are usually staffed by humans.

They are built to fail.

Unfortunately the base has Alpha Flight and Captain Marvel on it now. Which means when someone goofs up it's on them. And they will have to goof up because if they don't then things are going to get boring real fast.

"The Marvel EIC Chair has a certain curse that goes along with it: it tends to drive people insane, and ultimately, out of the business altogether. It is the notorious last stop for many staffers, as once you've sat in The Big Chair, your pariah status is usually locked in." Christopher Priest

I like some of these ideas. But I'm of the thinking that the first line of defense more often than not fails. I mean think of every major story and it's usually a situation where the day is saved by the last resort, not the first wall. Maybe incorporate some of that harsh reality into Carol's narrative.

I like Carol when she's down, but not quite out, and very, very dangerous because she can be resourceful. I like her as the opposite of some of the more powerful women, like Monica Rambeau, who will usually kick most people's butts in the first 5 nanoseconds, leaving only the most craziest of villains thinking that they ever had a chance to beat her.

Carol should win, but in a way that leaves her opponents thinking that they always have a better than fair shot to beat her. Her gallery respects her skill set, but they don't fear her. And as a result, she's always knocking heads with them, winning most of the time, but also getting her head handed to her more often than she'd be willing to admit.

Well, yeah, I'm not saying they should steamroll alien menaces. Of course they should be tough fights. But in superhero comics, these organizations are always shown failing, to the point where readers often question why they even exist. My idea would be to show why they exist: Because they actually do stop plenty of threats.

Bring back the Brood, too. As both overt and subtle threats. Let her kill a whole lot of Brood, but also do an arc where she has to deal with a Brood infestation on Earth.

[plot seed] Some people are seen flying around on these organic 'wing-packs' that give them Wasp-like wings that come out of an organic backpack-looking structure that has supports that fold out and grab onto the wearer. Other 'tech' of this sort is also found, strength-enhancing versions of the same that cover the arms in thick cables of organic muscle that 'lift' with you (and also wrap around your chest, midsection and legs for support), armored chestplates, even a stinger-like claw that extends from a forearm-mount and injects paralytic poison. Anyone who has no idea what a Brood is will not recognize this 'tech,' and the supplier has colored it and textured it so that even someone who *would* recognize a Brood wouldn't necessarily immediately point and shout 'Brood!' Turns out there's a brood queen on Earth, and she's subtle and thinking long-term. If she just kidnaps a bunch of people and implants eggs into them, it's all going to end in tears. She's seen how that story plays out. So she's trying something new. She's selling brood bio-tech as flying toys for the rich, and stabby arm blades for the underworld, and armored strength-enhancing suits for mercenaries and sketchy military groups from countries with low standards about that sort of thing.

And yeah, anyone who uses this Brood tech is being injected with hormones and whatever that make them susceptible to her control, but whatevs, it's a feature, not a bug.

And so Carol and her alien-threat-force peeps need to confront a brood queen in hiding, who has managed to take over the military of some third-world country that bought her 'bio-armor' for their troops, and they can all fly with wing-packs, and have paralytic stabby-blades that splorch out of their arm-thingies. And they are kinda/sorta still human, so she can't just *kill* them all... [/plot seed]

[plot seed] Some people are seen flying around on these organic 'wing-packs' that give them Wasp-like wings that come out of an organic backpack-looking structure that has supports that fold out and grab onto the wearer. Other 'tech' of this sort is also found, strength-enhancing versions of the same that cover the arms in thick cables of organic muscle that 'lift' with you (and also wrap around your chest, midsection and legs for support), armored chestplates, even a stinger-like claw that extends from a forearm-mount and injects paralytic poison. Anyone who has no idea what a Brood is will not recognize this 'tech,' and the supplier has colored it and textured it so that even someone who *would* recognize a Brood wouldn't necessarily immediately point and shout 'Brood!' Turns out there's a brood queen on Earth, and she's subtle and thinking long-term. If she just kidnaps a bunch of people and implants eggs into them, it's all going to end in tears. She's seen how that story plays out. So she's trying something new. She's selling brood bio-tech as flying toys for the rich, and stabby arm blades for the underworld, and armored strength-enhancing suits for mercenaries and sketchy military groups from countries with low standards about that sort of thing.

And yeah, anyone who uses this Brood tech is being injected with hormones and whatever that make them susceptible to her control, but whatevs, it's a feature, not a bug.

And so Carol and her alien-threat-force peeps need to confront a brood queen in hiding, who has managed to take over the military of some third-world country that bought her 'bio-armor' for their troops, and they can all fly with wing-packs, and have paralytic stabby-blades that splorch out of their arm-thingies. And they are kinda/sorta still human, so she can't just *kill* them all... [/plot seed]

Not a bad idea. I would give the Brood Queen a name and maybe some other abilities to make her stand out from the other members of her race.

Not a bad idea. I would give the Brood Queen a name and maybe some other abilities to make her stand out from the other members of her race.

In my Age of [CRaymond] AU headfanon, the Brood are successful in thier first encounter with the X-Men. The Brood manages to make Queens inside Havok, Thunderbird, and Banshee. While the progeny with Thunderbirdís powers are seemingly fine, the Brood born from the others are incompatible with mutant powers. Havok-spawn are not immune to the plasma they generate and end up incinerated. Banshee-spawn cannot speak without using sonic screams... making them a liability.

Maybe Cap Marvelís villain Brood is a Queen with the powers of an Eternal or Asgardian...

Give Carol to James Robinson and have her in space more than on Earth with the scrubs. Potential villains can be Power Princess (Marvel's Evil Wonder Woman), Tanalth the Pursurer, Moses Magnum and Living Monolith.

Give Carol to James Robinson and have her in space more than on Earth with the scrubs. Potential villains can be Power Princess (Marvel's Evil Wonder Woman), Tanalth the Pursurer, Moses Magnum and Living Monolith.

We've had several years worth of stories with Carol in space far more than on Earth and it's done very little to help her character or her books. Likewise, after Robinson's rather unpopular run on Wonder Woman, I dont think that will attract any fans either.
Captain Marvel, as a series, needs a writer like Mark Waid, Peter David or Cullen Bunn who can write some really good character driven stories but still be strong on plot and conflict. She needs the earth attachment and the supporting cast it can bring. Yes, she's had a supporting cast on Alpha, but that's also been squandered by poor writing.
As for villains, if she remains on the space station, I LOVE the idea of Karla Sofen being brought on board as perhaps the stations resident shirnk. Talk about conflict. Moonstone has often waffled between anti-hero and villain and this would give her the opportunity to play both against Carol.
Off station Carol needs just as strong characters to battle. It can be taking poorly represented characters like the U-Foes and amping them up or bringing in other strong threats like the Brood Queen and the Brood. Pulling some (at least semi) recognizable characters from Marvel's past would be a great place to start for building a gallery for Captain Marvel. Black Swan, Proxima Midnight, Power Princess, Deathbird (leading a faction against the Shi'ar and staging them close to Earth is an excellent idea)...bring back the Storyteller for an arc-he's a foe that Carol cant quite punch her way through. If Carol is going to hang out with part of the actual Alpha Flight group of heroes, pull in some of their bigger villains like the Dream Queen or the Great Beasts (although it's my understanding that Sasquatch is currently off the table, they can bring in Snowbird as a consult perhaps?) The Marvel Universe is chock full of amazing story opportunities with great characters who have been written no so greatly in the past (look what Kurt Busiek did with a bunch of really lame fifth rate characters like Screaming Mimi, the Beetle, Fixer and Moonstone. Marvel just really needs to put a writer who is capable of doing those things with Carol, her supporting cast and the villains she fights. Unfortunately, as much as Ms. Stohl loves the character, she's just not the best writer for her.